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I remember the first time my husband and I went to the beach together. I had never been, so I left the packing up to my husband. We loaded up the van and then drove the 1.5 hours to the Oregon Coast. It was within mere minutes of arrival, that I realized we packed all of the wrong things.
Let my experience be a lesson to all of you. Never let your husband pack for the beach… Just kidding.
In all seriousness, it doesn’t matter who does the packing. Just make sure you have everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Why You Should Pack Only The Essentials
Remember the packing fail I mentioned at the beginning of the post?
For our trip, my husband packed half of the house in the van. But when we go to the beach, we realized we weren’t going to be able to bring half of it with us.
We parked as close as we could to find we had a long walk and winding staircase between us and the ocean.
This brings us to a couple of important things to consider when packing for a beach trip.
Things To Consider When Taking A Beach Trip
Before you start packing for a beach trip, you need to figure out two things:
What does your beach access look like?
Before my first trip with my husband, I thought all beaches were the same. Flat and easy to get to. Just park and grab your things.
I never imagined we would be parking, walking down a million stairs, and trekking across deep sand before we even saw the ocean.
Had we known what our beach access was going to look like, we would have packed very differently.
So before you make your list of things to bring, find out about your beach access. Will there be stairs? Is parking hard to find? Is there a ramp? Or can you just walk on? Or even drive onto the beach.
How long are you staying?
The amount of stuff you need to bring will be different depending on how long you stay. Are you taking a day trip, staying for just the weekend, or staying an entire week?
Obviously, the longer you stay the more stuff you are going to need.
Beach Trip Packing List
The Basics
- Sunscreen (These are my favorite sunscreens.)
- Sunglasses (Find your perfect pair here.)
- Beach tote (We just bring a large reusable grocery bag most of the time.)
- Towels ( I just buy the cutest prints they have available.)
- Beach chairs (We bought these chairs from Costco.)
- Water bottles for everyone (Our family uses these water bottles.)
- Plastic bags (I bring large plastic Target bags.)
- Hand sanitizer
- Portable lock box
Nice To Have, But Not A Neccessity
- Beach cart
- Beach blanket
- Small portable cooler (I have this cooler but in red.)
If You’re Bringing Kids
Shop Beach Trip Packing List
